The Ohio State University Buckeyes – 34
Notre Dame Fighting Irish – 20
Troy Smith, proverbial pain-in-the-neck for the University of Michigan, just introduced Charle Weis and the rest of the Irish faithful (get it?) to Lloyd Carr’s reccuring nightmare. Single-handledly accounting for over 400 yards of offense, Smith shredded the Notre Dame defense with both his arm and his legs. He played like a man possesed. (A 2006 Heisman hopeful?) Notre Dame’s defense will also see Ted Ginn Jr.’s crazy legs in their sleep for the next eight months. Those moves he made on that 68-yard end-around were sick. Santonio Holmes may have played his last game as a Buckeye; talk about going out with a bang! And let’s not forget Antonio Pittman. That boy can run! OSU’s offense racked up 604 yards. That is insanity. They ran 66 plays. My handy-dandy calculator tells me that 9.15 yards a play. That is, as Brent Musberger so eloquently put it, was a Buckeye Butt-kicking.
Of course, there was the play of the stout OSU defense, which came to man-handle yet another team. Notre Dame certainly got off to a quick start but seemed to sputter the rest of the game. Throughout the game, the Notre Dame offense looked tight. They never looked comfortable. I was suprised with the number of dropped passes. Could that have been because of the tight leash Charlie Weis put on his players during the week? He called it a “business trip.” I don’t agree with that sentiment at all. Super Bowl trips in the NFL are business trips. College football bowl trips should be fun. Last time I checked, no one on either side of the football was receiving a paycheck after this game. That’s not to say Tressel let his boys party the whole time in Tempe, it just seemed like Weis was a little too strict.
Notre Dame just seemed overmatched. Their Brady Quinn-led offense never lived up to its billing. We knew their defense would struggle but we thought their offense would have put up a better fight than they did. Maybe OSU was too strong and a little faster. A.J. Hawk and Company may have been initially caught off-guard with that first drive but they buckled down and did a good job harassing Quinn all day along.
But in the end, it wasn’t OSU’s defense that won this game. It was Troy Smith. I’ll close by quoting a very prescient Charle Weis (speaking of Smith):
“He worries me the most of anyone on their team,” Weis said. “What scares me is any time you have a quarterback, and especially a quarterback who started out with a reputation of being a runner first and a thrower second, and now has reversed those roles, you have a problem.”
agentgray says
Yeah, it was a great game. OSU was just too fast for ND. Lot’s of great, big plays. I thought for sure to that NDs offense would keep up. Actually, I think they did. It was a 7 point game in that latter few minutes but that last touchdown just sealed it. Your right, they did look too tight. Gotta learn to play under bowl pressure guys.
After seeing this game, OSU should have been in the Sugar for sure. Hats off to Quinn’s sister for guaranteeing a win today (At least for her. Heh.)
I’m eating my hat. To the victors!
Bobster says
Was it just me or did A.J.’s girlfriend (Brady Quinn’s sister) seem to be rooting for her brother over A.J.? I’d dump her.
I wonder. When Mr. Hawk knocked Brady Quinn on his butt did he say “Your the second Quinn I’ve had on their back?” Or maybe, “I sacked you just like I did your sister?”
If he did maybe that got in Brady’s head and messed him up for the rest of the game.
Jeremiah says
Dear Agentgray, I do appreciate your willingness to accept the fact that we demolished your team. I do want to point out your one mistake. Notre Dames offense didnt come close to staying with our offense. ND had 348 yards of offense. 243 of wich came on your 3 scoring drives. That leaves your other 18 drives a total of 105 yards. I do hope brady and your team improves and we can meet again next year in the Fiesta Bowl as we are always looking for an easy National Championship game.
agentgray says
With all those yards from OSU, why wasn’t it a blowout? Why was it close until the final minutes?
I mean who only scores 34 off those type of yards?
604 yards/100 = ~ 6 touchdowns
6 * 7 (giving a freebie extra) = 42
348/100 = 3
3 * 7 (freebie again) = 21
Who had a better precision offense?
Spin doctoring. I know. 27 to 20 is pretty close to me in the fourth. I mean we’re only talking 100 yards in ND’s case for another TD but about 175 for OSU (if my finger math is right..big plays help…take out those plays…and…) OSU got a freebie in the end. They were/are the better team.
I can play the stats game as well and say it was close. However, watch the game and you know ND was trounced.
I agree with Tony’s thoughts about Weiss. He made it too big of deal to the team. There was only one Quinn who looked at “playing” with OSU as fun.
Bobster, that is the best thing I’ve heard all week. I’ve got to pass some of those over to my dad.
The only screwy thing is that the number two and number one teams play tonight and tomorrow night.